Google Calendar Now Lets You Schedule dedicated Task time, Marking Yourself as Busy
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – November 13, 2024 – Google Calendar users can now block out dedicated time for tasks and automatically appear as “busy” to others, a long-requested feature finally bridging the gap between to-do lists and scheduling. The update, rolling out to all workspace customers, individual subscribers, and personal Gmail accounts, effectively allows tasks to function like meetings, enabling users to protect focus time without creating unnecessary calendar events.
The new functionality expands Google’s existing Tasks feature within Calendar, letting users assign specific time blocks to tasks, activate “do not disturb” mode, and automatically decline meeting requests during those periods. While a task deadline can be set, currently only the date-not a specific time-is supported.
This update addresses feedback from users who have been requesting the ability to visually represent task work in their calendars, as highlighted in discussions on platforms like Reddit. Google Tasks has undergone critically important evolution as its initial launch as a standalone app in 2018, with recent additions including integrated reminders from google Keep and the introduction of completion dates. The rollout began for Rapid Release domains on November 6th and is expected to be fully available by mid-December.
Unlike Google’s existing “focus time” feature, this new iteration directly links scheduled blocks to specific tasks.Users can access the feature by selecting “Task” when choosing an option for an empty time slot in Google Calendar. More data is available in Google’s support documentation. (https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/9901136)
